Thar's GOLD in the cell phones!

[Joanne98]

March 4 (Bloomberg) -- One man’s waste is another’s gold. Or so Germany’s Norddeutsche Affinerie AG has discovered.

Germans throw away about 24 million mobile phones each year, almost one for every three residents, violating a federal law against electronic waste. Added up, it’s almost a half-ton of gold that can be melted out of the circuitry of discarded cellphones and computers.

That means the precious-metals refinery that Norddeutsche Affinerie operates in Germany, where Europe’s largest economy is suffering from its worst recession since World War II, is running at full speed forging gold bars out of the carcasses of German mobile phones and PCs.

“Electronic waste is a tremendous resource but it’s not being managed nearly as effectively as it could be,” Kevin Brigden, a scientist at Greenpeace in the U.K., said in an interview. Phones and computers need to be designed so recyclers can easily extract the “pot of gold” in the waste, he said.

The Hamburg-based refiner, one of a handful of precious- metal recycling firms in the world, recovers about 3.5 tons of gold worth some $110 million each year from mobile phones and other electronic scrap. Similarly, Umicore SA near Antwerp, Belgium, recovers about 6 tons of gold a year from waste.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aa.IvaqdRZiU&refer=home

:wow:

[MADem]

1. Who knew?

When Grandma said "One man's trash is another man's treasure" she knew what she was talking about!

[progressoid]

2. I would hope they do a better job of it in Germany than China

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/06/60minutes/main4579229.shtml

60 Minutes is going to take you to one of the most toxic places on Earth - a place government officials and gangsters don't want you to see. It's a town in China where you can't breathe the air or drink the water, a town where the blood of the children is laced with lead.

It's worth risking a visit because much of the poison is coming out of the homes, schools and offices of America. This is a story about recycling - about how your best intentions to be green can be channeled into an underground sewer that flows from the United States and into the wasteland.





Seven out of 10 children in Guiyu, China, have too much lead in their blood.